The present invention relates to voice recognition techniques for personal computers, and more particularly to utilizing such techniques to input commands to be executed by the computer.
Personal computers often are equipped with a xe2x80x9csound cardxe2x80x9d which is audio processing circuitry mounted on a printed circuit board that plugs into the computer. This enables programs to generate sounds and synthesized speech which are send to speakers connected to the sound card. For example, when the computer presents a warning message to the user that message not only can be displayed on the video monitor, it also can be presented in audio form. Many sound cards also have an input for a microphone which picks-up the user""s voice for digitizing by the audio processing circuitry. Sound cards of this type are used for bidirectional audio communication over the Internet.
The conventional way that a user interfaces with a personal computer utilizes the keyboard and a mouse for entering commands in conjunction with a graphical user interface (GUI) which displays icons, words and other graphical elements on the screen of a video monitor. This type of interface is an alternative to typing commands directly into the keyboard. With a GUI, the mouse is employed to manipulate a cursor over an screen display element which corresponds to a function that the user wishes to select. By pressing a button on the mouse, the computer is informed that the present cursor position indicates the item being selected. The software then can correlate the cursor position with the particular display element to determine the user""s selection.
Voice recognition software has been developed for use in conjunction with personal computer sound cards. This software enables the user to enter information into the computer by speaking that information. For example, the voice recognition software can be used to enter text into a word processor program instead of typing the text on a keyboard. The software is able to learn speech patterns of a particular user and thereafter recognize words being spoken by that user. Thereafter the digitized audio signals produced by the sound card are interpreted to determine the words being spoken and the text equivalent of the words is entered into the word processor program.
The present invention enables a computer user to select display elements of a graphical user interface by speaking commands into a microphone connected to the computer.
This is accomplished by a method which involves selecting a display element that is being presented by the graphical user interface on a monitor screen of the computer. The computer then responds to the selection process by displaying a menu of voice commands which may be used to select functions associated with the chosen display element. The next step of the process involves receiving a phrase spoken by the user and employing voice recognition techniques to determine which one of the voice commands was spoken. Thereafter, the computer executes the function designated by the spoken command.
In one specific embodiment of the voice command system, the step of selecting a display element comprises determining a position of a cursor on the monitor screen and determining which display element is located at that position. In another embodiment, the selecting step comprises receiving a second phrase spoken by the user and applying voice recognition techniques to the second phrase in order to determine the display element being designated.